Overview
Elementary Reading Specialist, Waypoint Academy – $100,000/year USD Jobs in Dripping Springs, TX at Crossover
Title: Elementary Reading Specialist, Waypoint Academy – $100,000/year USD
Company: Crossover
Location: Dripping Springs, TX
Required: Master's degree in reading instruction OR structured literacy certification (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, IMSE, CERI, LETRS, Neuhaus, UFLI, or equivalent)
- On-site role at Waypoint Academy, Dripping Springs (Austin area), TX. Relocation assistance provided.
- $100,000 annual salary, paid weekly. Health, dental, and vision benefits begin on day one.
- Nature-integrated school blending rigorous academics with outdoor experiential learning
Most reading specialists work exclusively with students already falling behind. You've built your career believing that approach is flawed — that Science of Reading principles belong in front of every child, not reserved for those flagged after failure. If that conviction shapes your teaching philosophy, this role merits your attention.
Waypoint Academy is a nature-integrated school where mornings center on intensive academics and afternoons shift to archery, wilderness skills, and Hill Country exploration. Your responsibility is the academic core: delivering small-group structured literacy instruction that advances every K-2 student in phonics, decoding, fluency, and written expression. You design the lessons. You interpret the data. You regroup and modify instruction continuously. The remainder of your day involves coaching students through adaptive learning platforms, cultivating the connections that ensure every student reaches 100% of their digital learning targets. No prescriptive curriculum packages. No traditional pull-out intervention model. You hold accountability for literacy outcomes across the entire K-2 population.
You're joining a developing, compact school. That means you'll construct the literacy framework, not inherit an established system. As student enrollment expands, you'll determine how structured literacy scales across additional cohorts and grade bands. If you prefer a stable position with fixed procedures, this role won't suit you. If you aim to demonstrate that all children learn to read more effectively when instruction is individually calibrated, this is your opportunity.
What You Will Be Doing
- Delivering small-group structured literacy instruction: explicit phonics, decoding strategies, fluency practice, and foundational writing for the full K-2 population, not exclusively intervention students
- Interpreting student performance data from adaptive platforms and running records to reconfigure groups and modify instruction session by session
- Providing one-on-one and small-group coaching during adaptive learning software sessions, establishing relationships that sustain goal achievement
- Creating original lesson plans grounded in structured literacy science, calibrated to each group's present skill level and learning velocity
- Integrating selective outdoor or tactile activities to strengthen literacy concepts when they authentically support instructional objectives
What You Won’t Be Doing
- Drafting IEPs or managing pull-out logistics with general education teachers. The entire student body is your instructional responsibility.
- Monitoring students passively while they work on learning apps. You will actively coach toward goal completion, not observe passive screen time.
- Remaining in a conventional classroom environment all day. Students transition outdoors each afternoon, so your literacy instruction is concentrated and high-intensity.
- Grading large volumes of paper worksheets — adaptive platforms manage practice quantity and progress documentation, allowing you to concentrate on live instruction.
Elementary Reading Specialist Key Responsibilities
Drive measurable reading and writing advancement for all K-2 students using structured literacy methods and adaptive learning technology.
Basic Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in any discipline
- Master's degree in reading instruction OR structured literacy certification including Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading System, IMSE, CERI, LETRS, Neuhaus, or UFLI. This is a mandatory requirement, not a preference.
- 2+ years of full-time K-2 structured reading instruction using systematic phonics in a school or clinical environment, completed within the past 5 years
- Demonstrated ability to design independent reading lessons, and articulate your instructional content and methods without relying on a commercial program
- Available to work on-site at Waypoint Academy, Dripping Springs (Austin area), TX
- Prepared to work with the complete K-2 student population (not only struggling readers) and integrate AI-driven adaptive learning tools into daily instruction
- Authorized to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship
Nice-to-have Requirements
- Background with multiple structured literacy methodologies (e.g., Orton-Gillingham and UFLI) accompanied by a clear rationale for selecting each approach situationally
- Documented reading gains across an entire student cohort, not limited to intervention subgroups. You can specify the assessment tools and quantitative results.
- Working knowledge of adaptive reading platforms (Lexia, Amira, Reading Eggs, or comparable systems) and leveraging their analytics to inform instructional planning
- Background in alternative educational models: micro-schools, outdoor learning programs, Montessori environments, or similar non-traditional settings
About Waypoint Academy
Nature-based school that blends rigorous academics with real-world challenges.
There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!
Working with us
This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.
Crossover Job Code: LJ-5780-US-Dripping-ElementaryRead
